Walled In

However tyrannical the reign of superheroes and special effects over the box office, naturalism, even hypernaturalism, is not dead as a cinematic style. Witness two recent films.

The Class, a French Oscar nominee for best foreign-language picture of 2008 and the winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, is certainly an antidote to education-themed weepies such as Freedom Writers, Stand and Deliver, and To Sir, with...

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